1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of network-based communications and information discovery and pertains particularly to network-based storage and management of tags and information associated therewith.
2. Discussion of the State of the Art
With the advent of networking, companies and organizations have depended on software-based communications and research tools to manage enterprise activities and to attempt to improve workforce performance; streamline workflow; and improve quality of service. Many modern network-supported communication and collaboration tools include Email Applications, Instant Messaging Applications, File Sharing Applications, Network Collaboration Software, Time Management Applications, Central Directory Applications, Network Telephony Applications and a wide array of others. Many of these tools are often packaged together as Customer Relations Management (CRM), Internal Relations Management (IRM), and Business-to-Business (B2B) Enterprise Solutions. These solutions are meant to improve performance of the enterprise as a whole.
In an enterprise, it is critical that internal data required to enable task performance is easy to find, and once found, immediately accessible to those who need it. Several challenges exist for a large enterprise related to human task performance, internal interaction and data retention, and database management as it relates to workflow within the enterprise. In many large enterprises, a class of workers known as knowledge workers is typically responsible for much of the data management and how that data may be accessed and used, as well as how data is stored and maintained within the enterprise data stores. It is important that critical data has integrity, is reliable, and can be swiftly accessed and improved upon by updating and adding new relevant data.
In many enterprises workers who must generate workflow spend inordinate amounts of time trying to locate relevant information within the enterprise that may be critical to their tasks. In many cases they must order data from an authorized knowledge worker and must wait until the knowledge worker can accommodate the request. More particularly, there is typically no smooth, incoming flow of task relevant data to the worker. If the worker has an internal search tool, often much irrelevant data is included in a search result with a small portion of relevant information that the worker must drill down to.
Another problem that exists with larger enterprises is that knowledge of human resources, employee skills, ongoing projects, product data, service data, customer data, and so on is not typically available across the divisions of the enterprise compartments. For example, a worker in sales management may not be familiar with the personnel and expertise of those personnel working in the manufacturing arm of the same enterprise. Much input may be required of the worker to search out and disseminate this type of data if authorized to receive it.
There are existing applications that attempt to centrally locate employee information, database resources, and other such information so that an employee, by logging into a system using a desktop application may access information and other resources during the performance of workflow. A problem with this approach is that it is standardized in format, rigid in protocol, and often-complex procedures (almost rituals) are required to actually gain access to relevant information. Often the data, once accessed, is old and out of date, no longer relevant, or otherwise not validated as useful or the right data to incorporate into the workflow. Data aggregation and updating of the system databases with relevant data does not occur while the workflow progresses but often at some later time, meaning that the most recent data is not always available.
Often as well relevant data needs to be associated with, or provided in a way to complement other relevant data. Sometimes more abstract data is required in order to enable the worker to understand the data he or she has accessed. A supervisor or a more knowledgeable worker may not be immediately available to the worker to help tie the meaning of the data sets together. Enterprise personnel are constantly struggling with these types of frustrations under existing information-access and data management systems.
The inventors are aware of a network-based system, though not in the public domain, for enhancing cooperation among persons engaged in an enterprise. This system utilizes a server coupled to the network, the server executing software providing one or more interactive displays on computerized appliances operated by the persons. The system includes a data repository accessible to the server. The system maintains enterprise-related profiles for individual ones of the persons in the data repository, including resources, and also tracks, manages and records enterprise-related activity of the persons, including data associated with such activity. The system also enables individual ones of the persons, through the interactive displays provided, to discover and utilize data and/or resources associated by the system with others of the persons.
One way enterprise resources and personnel are rendered discoverable in this system is by association of people and resources including works, projects and contact messages through tagging. As a user works under the system, he or she may bookmark resources and data including documents and apply tags to those data. Thereafter, that user may be found associated to those resources and tags enabling a kind of knowledge base that extends outside of the enterprise domain to include other activities, interests and knowledge of persons where the persons have elected to make such knowledge available to the enterprise.
It has occurred to the inventor that tags are the most versatile utilities for indexing, correlating and associating any computerized data regardless of where that data resides on a network. As a user bookmarks resources and tags those resources for latter search purposes, tag history and tag attribute data for that user can be leveraged to provide rich information about the user and what the user is working on or involved in. By correlating tag attributes of multiple persons, commonalities begin to develop among those persons. Though correlation then, knowledge may be gained by any one user by searching for information using keyword or phrase input initially to begin the search, the input being matched to one or more tags having attributes that can be leveraged to further information discovery over multiple optional paths.
It would be desirous to be able to expand the enterprise bank of knowledge and searchable content well beyond the physical boundaries of the enterprise to include content and resources tagged and recorded in domains largely external to the enterprise. It would also be desirous to make information discovery and collaboration opportunities available on a broad scale through existing collaboration and communication applications and information search services.
Therefore, what is clearly needed is a tag repository and information management system that tracks and manages all of the tags created and leveraged by users operating on a network irrespective of network boundaries.